Sunday, July 6, 2014

6 Days into the mission

6 Days
into the mission – an update

Keith
contracted pneumonia while at the MTC.
We, I am sure by divine providence, were not scheduled to fly to Mexico
until 4 days following the MTC. He
survived the first two days here and then was even sicker than before. Our neighbor, President Valadez of the MCS
mission took him to a specialist. He was
given 4 medicines and sent to bed through today. He is quickly regaining strength and hopes to
start next week at full power.

The
most overwhelming task at hand is how to get around this place! Neither the mission office nor home is
actually in the mission boundaries. We
live about 9 miles from the Mission office.
Seems a short distance in the USA – but here the traffic is “over the
top.” Nice drivers don’t even finish
last – they are simply “eaten alive.” The Assistants have driven us to
date. Taking a suggestion from President
Valadez, we got in the van just before light today. We had blocked out the route to the office
and getting there went pretty smoothly – although once on the street the
numbers didn’t make sense. After 4 trips
up and down the street, we found it! All
offices and residents in the area sit behind two metal garage doors. So unless you are looking for a business, you
are looking at myriads of metal garage doors.
We were happy to find it – and then tried to plan our way back. We tried following the same route back but
couldn’t enter on to the expressway. We
found ourselves down a blocked street that we had to back out of. We returned to the office to try again. We followed a route the Assistants had
mentioned – 2 more attempts and then back to the office. By now Keith’s not feeling well was
showing! We prayed again, and set
out. I would trace us on the IPhone and
he would drive. We finally found the
correct “freeway” and made it a few miles till it was under construction. We tried a side street only to find we were
face to face with a rather large bus. Both Keith and the bus driver had their hands in
the air. I found that funnier than Keith
did! Finally, after several hours we
found ourselves back in Coyoacan, where our home is. Some of the streets in Coyoacan are
cobblestone, no traffic lines, with a lot of speed “mountains.” Great “fun” to hit those mountains!

A
little about our home: It is made of concrete,
wood and tile floors, and is really quite beautiful. There are two floors and a small third floor
that looks like it is a servant’s quarters – Keith calls it Rapunzel’s tower. I like the third floor – I can walk out on
the roof up there and look around. There
is also a Nordic track – although exercising at 8000 feet presents an oxygen
challenge! The kitchen is modern. The house is cold and we don’t have a heating/air
conditioning system. There are a few
space heaters around. I didn’t expect
cold – this is summer. Most of our
warmer wear is in the packed boxes coming from California.

With
Keith sick, I took the opportunity to walk around Coyoacan a little. I know where the bank, drug store, and
Walmart are located. By the way –
Walmart is the more expensive place to shop.
I have spotted a Burger King and a Papa Johns. I was with Sister Valadez when we got caught
in a downpour in the plaza of Coyoacan.
I have never seen such rain.
Fortunately I had my croc’s on – but I was soaked to the bone is just
minutes. I now understand some of our
missionary’s letters!

The
Assistants were over last night and transfers are ready for next week. We both are looking forward to “full steam
ahead” tomorrow!